Eurasianism

Eurasianism (Russian: евразийство, romanizedyevraziystvo) is a socio-political movement in Russia that emerged in the early 20th century under the Russian Empire, which states that Russia does not belong in the "European" or "Asian" categories but instead to the geopolitical concept of Eurasia and the "Russian world" (Russian: Русский мир, romanized: Russky mir), forming an ostensibly standalone Russian civilization.

The first Eurasianists were mostly émigré, pacifists, and their vision of the future had features of romanticism and utopianism. The goal of the Eurasianists was the unification of the main Christian churches under the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.[1] A key feature of Eurasianism is the rejection of Russian ethnic nationalism, which seeks to build a pan-Slavic state. The Eurasianists strongly opposed the territorial fragmentation of the Russian Empire that had occurred due to the Bolshevik Revolution and the following civil war (1917–1923). They used their geo-historical theories to insist on the necessity of the geopolitical reconstruction of the Russian state as a unified Eurasian great power.[2] Unlike many of the White Russians, the Eurasianists rejected attempts for Tsarist restoration.[3]

To enable their return, Eurasianist émigré became supportive of the Bolshevik Revolution, but not its stated goals of building a communist state. Many viewed the Soviet Union as a stepping stone on the path of creating a new national identity that would reflect Russia's geopolitical situation. Eurasianist support for the Soviet Union began in the 1920s during the Stalinist era, which witnessed the emergence of a distinct socialist nationalism through CPSU's enforcement of "Socialism in one country" policy. Despite this, all organized Eurasianist activities in the Soviet Union were ended during the Great Terror of Joseph Stalin (1936–1940). After the Second World War, Stalin's efforts to empower an Eastern Bloc of communist states opposed to the Western capitalist world were seen by Eurasianist remnants as compatible with their own ideology.[4]

Eurasianism underwent a resurgence after the collapse of the Soviet Union during the 1990s, and has been mirrored by Turanism in Turkic nations. This new Eurasianism has been described as a kind of Russian neo-imperialism.[5] Modern Eurasianists have coalesced around three prominent ideological currents: the neo-fascist Eurasianist movement of Aleksandr Dugin; the communist Eurasianism of Gennady Zyuganov; and a state-sanctioned Eurasianism that advances Russian geopolitical interests.[4][6] Eurasianism has been officially endorsed in Russia's 2023 Foreign Policy Concept approved by Vladimir Putin, which defined Russia as a "Eurasian and Euro-Pacific" civilizational-state closely aligned with China, the Muslim world, and other countries of the Global South, seeking to replace Western hegemony by a "Greater Eurasian Partnership".[7][8][9]

  1. ^ Böss, Otto (14 January 1961). "Die Lehre der Eurasier: ein Beitrag zur russischen Ideengeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts". Otto Harrassowitz Verlag – via Google Books.
  2. ^ "Re-imagining World Spaces: The New Relevance of Eurasia". 31 July 2016.
  3. ^ Marlène Laruelle (2008) Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire. Woodrow Wilson Center Press
  4. ^ a b Nugraha, Aryanta (February 2018). "Neo-Eurasianism in Russian Foreign Policy: Echoes from the Past or Compromise with the Future?". Jurnal Global & Strategis. 9 (1): 99–100. doi:10.20473/jgs.9.1.2015.95-110. Archived from the original on 6 July 2023 – via Global Strategis.
  5. ^ Michael Hirsh (12 March 2022). "Putin's Thousand-Year War". Foreign Policy.
  6. ^ Smith, Graham (1999). "The Masks of Proteus: Russia, Geopolitical Shift and the New Eurasianism". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 24 (4): 481–494. Bibcode:1999TrIBG..24..481S. doi:10.1111/j.0020-2754.1999.t01-2-00481.x. JSTOR 623236 – via JSTOR.
  7. ^ "Russia adopts new anti-West foreign policy strategy". Deutsche Welle. 31 March 2023. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023.
  8. ^ Gould-Davies, Nigel (6 April 2023). "Russia's new foreign-policy concept: the impact of war". IISS. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023.
  9. ^ "The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation". Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union. 1 March 2023. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023.